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While most voters in Manitoba won’t get the chance to cast a ballot in municipal elections until this October, people in three small communities will head to the polls on Friday.
The Rural Municipality of Victoria Beach, the Town of Winnipeg Beach and the Village of Dunnottar hold their general elections every four years on the fourth Friday in July, instead of the fourth Wednesday in October like other Manitoba municipalities.
Winnipeg Beach senior election official Leah McIsaac said because Manitobans who live and vote in one community can also vote in another municipality if they own property there — for example, a Winnipeg resident who is also on the property title for a Winnipeg Beach cabin — July elections are a better option for communities like hers.
“Because we’re resort towns, our population booms in the summer,” McIsaac said. “So it just makes more sense for everyone to be here.”
More than 300 advance ballots from some of the town’s roughly 2,600 voters have already come in to help elect a mayor and four councillors, McIsaac said.
She also expects a strong turnout come election day, given what she called an unusually long list of options this year. With three mayoral candidates and nine running for council, no one will win by acclamation in Winnipeg Beach.
“I’m thrilled that people are getting as involved as they are,” McIsaac said.
In conversations she’s had with people by email or on the phone, or “just bumping into” them, “people are asking strong questions. And it’s really nice to see,” she said.
Manitobans who live and vote in one community can also vote in another municipality if they own property there — like someone who lives in Winnipeg, but is also on the property title for their cabin in Winnipeg Beach. (Rudy Gauer/CBC)
For Winnipeg Beach voter Mike Halabura, elections are an important way to participate in the community — he said he even ran for mayor once about 25 years ago — and he’s glad to see how many candidates were on the ballot this year.
“The people are getting serious, and the people running are more serious,” Halabura said. “We needed that for a long time.”
Fellow voter Gwen Dyck hopes to see candidates elected who will work together to help spur the town’s growth.
“There’s some people I believe in and I want to make sure I do my best to get them where they belong,” Dyck said.
“This town is great, but the potential of this town is so much greater. It would be so nice to see it expanded.”
Voters ‘definitely engaged around here’
The high level of electoral competition this year isn’t limited to Winnipeg Beach.
Victoria Beach’s mayor has been acclaimed, but all other positions across the three resort communities will be decided by a vote this year.
There’s been a level of election engagement the executive director of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities said he hasn’t seen in years.
“It’s very competitive elections in all of those three communities,” said Denys Volkov, who is also a cottage owner in Dunnottar. “So it’s very good to see that democracy is alive and well in cottage country.”
Wade Vermeersch, who moved to Dunnottar in October, said he hopes to see people elected who value transparency.
“If we have council meetings and I watch them, I want to make sure that … they’re not just rubber-stamping what they’ve already decided,” Vermeersch said.
From what he’s seen, other people in his new home community seem to care about what happens in this year’s election too.
“If you talk to people … at the local bar or, you know, just chat with people in the supermarket, everybody seems to have a very definite opinion on voting,” Vermeersch said.
“Whether they agree with me or not — I’ve heard, you know, a lot of conflicting bits on Facebook … people are definitely engaged around here.”
WATCH | Victoria Beach, Winnipeg Beach, Dunnottar voters go to polls:
3 Manitoba beach communities head to the polls
While most people won’t head to the polls until October, three Manitoba resort communities are holding municipal elections Friday. Voters will cast ballots in Winnipeg Beach, Dunnottar and the rural municipality of Victoria Beach.
Volkov said he’s glad to hear people are interested in this year’s election, and encourages eligible voters to cast their ballots.
“Democracy is becoming a difficult process in many countries around the world. And we’re lucky in Canada,” he said. “Many people around the world don’t have this opportunity.”